During surgery, a surgeon will have sufficient training and experience to visually identify the various physiological organs and other materials present at a surgical site. Accurately identifying the various organs or other materials is obviously vital to ensuring that a proper surgery is performed. This identification may be determined based on previous experience and training of what specific organs and tissues may look like or feel like, as well as having knowledge and awareness of the anatomy of the patient. However, there are few other indicators for a surgeon to be able to distinguish the types of tissues present. In addition, artificial implants, substances underneath tissue that are unseen, and other modifications made to the body of the patient, either through previous surgeries or by ingestion of substances, for example, may impede a surgeon's ability to properly identify all of the materials or structures present at a surgical site. Moreover, it may be difficult to visually inspect differences between healthy and diseased tissue, in some cases. Thus, it would be useful to have additional aids to assist in identifying or detecting various physiological structures or materials when performing surgery.
While several devices have been made and used, it is believed that no one prior to the inventors has made or used the device described in the appended claims.